Colorado's Child Poverty Rates Climbing Fastest in US

The Metro Community Provider Network (MCPN), which has 11 health centers in the Denver area, has seen a 138 percent increase in patients during the last year of recession.
(John Moore/Getty Images)

The state of Colorado has the fastest growing rate of child poverty in the U.S. The poverty isn't evenly distributed, however: When the Colorado Children's Campaign attempted to put that statistic into context, they discovered a vast gulf between rates of poverty for Hispanic children and white children.

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There’s a high correlation between ethnicity and low income Colorado right now, and unfortunately I believe that we’ve had a systematic process where we’ve put some of the weakest teachers in some of the highest-need schools.

But the problem doesn't, as you might expect, stem from communities of new immigrants - but rather from Hispanic communities that have been in Colorado for generations. Chris Watney, President of the Colorado Children's Campaign, joins us with her thoughts on why child poverty is on the rise in some communities, but not in others. And James Mejia, CEO of the Denver Pre-school Program and a leader in the Hispanic community, offers insight and solutions to the problem.